Whatever Wednesday

A year ago at this time I was eagerly anticipating the arrival of my little girl. You can read her birth story here. I remember taking a nap waking up with pains and thinking is this it? We spent the next few hours, walking, timing contractions and getting sleep. In the middle of the night I wake up and the contractions are coming stronger and closer together. We eventually go to the hospital and the next afternoon we meet our beautiful baby girl.

I can't believe it's almost been a year since she joined our family. For her birthday we are planning to have doughnuts for breakfast, I have a meeting in the morning so Charlotte will be hanging out with her friends and we'll figure out what to do that night. We are planning to celebrate more with daddy on Saturday.

Sunday Charlotte and I will fly to MO for the week and end with her birthday party that weekend. I have been in party planning mode for months, but have really kicked it up the past two weeks. I'm so excited for the party!!

Comic Con

Last week over 150,000 people descended upon San Diego for Comic Con. People from all over the US and abroad come for the 4-Day Trade show and Conference. I've been wanting to go for several years, but tickets are hard to come by. So, Charlotte and I were planning to people watch and celebrity stalk one of the days during the conference. For whatever reason we didn't make it during the week, so Saturday was are only option. Friday afternoon I receive a text from David saying - We may be there some this weekend. After a few more texts I found out that we may have tickets. I was beyond excited!! We went on with our weekend and found out that we would have tickets for Sunday. 

It was more crazy than I expected. I've worked and attended trade shows/conferences and none of them have compared to this. For whatever reason I thought people would be leaving, since it was Sunday, and it would be less crowded. Boy was I wrong. I usually don't mind crowds, I'm one of those Black Friday Shoppers, so I thought would be easy to get around. Wrong again. In the exhibit hall I felt like I was waiting in line to ride the rides at Disney World. There was no room to move. Having a stroller made it more difficult. After walking around 1/4 of the hall we had to get out. Because there were so many people we couldn't see anything up close. The guys from SOA were signing autographs, but we could only see them on the tv screens. I wanted to walk through the Lionsgate exhibit but the line was way too long. After leaving the hall we walked around the convention center and looked for the line to see the main stage. At this point we had about 2 1/2 hours before the panel we wanted to see. When we finally found the line, we realized that we were never going to get in. There had to be hundreds, maybe even thousands in people already in line. 

We decided to walk back through the exhibit hall to catch the rest of the show before calling it a day. After finishing at the hall we walked over to Petco Park to catch the festivities. Upon leaving there, we stumbled on a Breaking Bad fan party. They were on of the panels we had wanted to see. We didn't get a close up of them either but it was still fun to go. By this point we had one tired little girl so we headed home. I want to go back next year and actually get to see the panels. 

Convention Center

Inside the Exhibit Hall

Proof that we were actually there. 

At the Hello Kitty Ugly Doll exhibit. They were sold out by the time we go there. 

Inside the Hall. 

Outside the convention center. 

Hard to tell but underneath the tents were the lines for the panel.

At the Breaking Bad party with our beaker cups they gave out.

One tired little girl.

Whatever Wednesday

In less than 3 weeks my little girl will officially be a 1 year old. Time has flown by. I remember this time last year anticipating her arrival and wondering who she would look like and what kind of baby she would be. Her upcoming birthday brings me to my two topics today.

Breast feeding:

I have always planned to breast feed as long as I could or up until a year old. As that time is quickly approaching I'm debating what to do. Around the 6th or 7th month C decided she was no longer a fan of the boob. I was actually relieved. She had started to think of feeding time as a game and it tested my patience. After a couple months of weaning I was glad she was showing her independence.  Don't get me wrong that was not the end of our breast feeding experience only hers. For the past 5-6 months I have pumped 5-6 times a day and spend approximately 3 hours prepping, pumping and cleaning bottles. It hasn't been easy and it's definitely exhausting but as long as I was producing I wanted to keep it up. For the last month our schedule has easily allowed for me to cut out one feeding per day.

As we approach the 1 year mark I'm conflicted as to wether or not I should/want to continue pumping. I'm completely over this pumping thing, but ... We have already started mixing breast milk with whole milk so C get's used to it. She flat out refused formula. And only when I was producing a small amount would she take it with breast milk. I didn't want a repeat of that, right when we will be traveling. Did I mention that we are traveling back to MO two days after her birthday, so if I want to continue pumping I have to travel with the pump again. It's not fun. I'm tempted to see how long I can get away with pumping once a day, but I don't know if it will last long. Plus I detest traveling with the pump. If I stop, I have no idea how long it takes to dry up and that could be embarrassing while traveling too. Decisions, decision decisions....


1st Year Photo Shoot:
I'm so excited, probably more excited than I should be, about C's 1 year old pictures. I love taking pictures and having pictures taken. I've read that color palette is key when taking family photos. I've been thinking about this photo session for months and planning it out in my head. There are so many color combos that I'm loving this summer that is was a tough decision to pick one for our family photo. I finally settled on Navy, White and Neon/Hot Pink.

C's Outfit #1 - Hot Pink Jeans, Chambray tank, White denim jacket

C's Outfit #2 - Hot Pink Jeans, Striped Tank, White Denim jacket

My Outfit #1 - Long Maxi Dress

My Outfit #2 - White Jeans, Navy Tank, Pink Cardigan, Pink Bubble Necklace

My Outfit #3 - Navy Eyelet Shorts, Striped Tank, White Bubble Necklace and possible cardigan

Which ones are your favs?

Whatever Wednesday

First of all I can't believe that July is already here and almost half over. Seriously where is summer going? Since July is flying by that can only mean that August is almost here and lots of birthdays including Charlotte's and mine.

Speaking of birthdays, I'm in the midst of planning Charlotte's birthday party. Since we want all of our family to be there, we decided to have her party back in Missouri. My sister graciously agreed to let us use their clubhouse for the party. It's central to both families and has a pool for the kiddos. The theme is Orange, Hot Pink and Gold. I'm trying to prioritize all the stuff I want to have at the party.

While I was at home a few weeks ago my sister got me hooked on several Lifetime shows - Drop Dead Diva and Pretty Wicked Moms. I've burned through 3 seasons of DDD in the last week. I probably watch too much tv, but it's worse when I can watch the entire season on Netflix.

My sister also told me about a good book to read, Gone Girl Gone and I finally made it to the top of the list at my library. I keep re-reading the same few pages before I go to bed, but I need to make more of an effort to get through it before it's due next week. EEkkk.

That's all for this edition of Whatever Wednesday.

4th of July Recap

Happy Birthday America! I've always loved the 4th of July. It's a time for family and friends, food, fireworks and outdoor activities i.e. swimming, pools and the beach.

I've had the privilege of celebrating the 4th in STL, Washington, DC, Chicago, Aruba and now San Diego. Each city has offered a great way to celebrate the holiday and San Diego was no different.

We didn't have any grand plans and wanted to avoid the crowds, so we had a low key day. Plus we didn't know how C would do. I've been wanting to check out a local splash pad in the area so we headed out to the park. The park was not what I expected; it backed up to a neighborhood, had several lakes, two playgrounds and plenty of green space. I would definitely go back and next time bring a picnic. C had fun, or as much fun as could have with all the big kids running around.

We debated where we should watch the fireworks - walk down to the harbor or watch from David's office. With all the crowds, smoke and noise we opted for the comfort of the office. I'm so glad that we chose the office. We were able to see three different, but the same, displays. C loved it! She was watching and talking throughout the whole show.

And because it's not a holiday without a photo shoot, here are several pics from our session.

And I leave you with a photo from a previous DC fireworks display. Our friends had the best view of the three monuments with the fireworks in the background. 

Missouri Trip

Charlotte and I traveled back to MO two weeks ago for a visit. Here's a recap of our trip in photos.

Happy Anniversary

This post is two weeks late, but Happy Anniversary David! We've been through a lot over the past 8 years - 4 moves to 4 different cities, trips to 6 different countries, grad school, a baby and here we are. Here's to the next 80 years.

Wedding Day - 2005

Atlantic City - 2006

DC - 2007

DC - 2008

DC - 2009

Chicago - 2010

San Diego - 2011

Chicago - 2012

San Diego - 2013